Lima

The flight from JFK was remarkably smooth and included two meals. Can´t beat that. The big excitement was the cab ride from the Lima airport to the bus station. It seemed like a free for all on the roads, with drivers ignoring road signs, other cars, traffic lights. They didn´t ignore their horns, which are beeping constantly. Amazingly, I did not see any accidents, but I  saw,  honestly, about 20 to 30 really close calls. My driver was awesome, rarely taking his eyes off the prize (any open space he could squeeze through). I imagine all big cities operate this way, but this was even a cut above the New York and L.A. traffic I´ve been involved in. It was something else. Also, there´s quite a bit of trash on the street, which takes some getting used to. Regardless, folks are pretty nice so far. Not many English speakers, but they´re very patient with my very humble attempts at Spanish. Had an excellent coffee, wonderful shredded chicken sandwich (with crunchy french fries and a fresh tomato on it), and papaya smoothie for about $4.50 U.S. at the bus station. Weather is very Calif.-like, with overcast skies and cool temps in the a.m. burning off and warming up in the p.m. No complaints so far. This place looks great. We´ll see how I feel after the 16-hour bus ride to Arequipa.